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Global Outlook for Ice & Snow

The “Global Outlook for Ice & Snow” is a special and unique UNEP report launched to mark World Environment Day on 5 June 2007. Snow and ice, with their large areas but relatively small volumes, are inextricably connected to key interactions and responses in the global ecosystem, including solar reflectivity and ocean circulation. The futures of hundreds of millions of people across the world will be affected by declines in snow cover, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost and lake ice. An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s population could be affected by loss of snow and glaciers on the mountains of Asia alone, says the UNEP report.